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Built in Saucer

A teacup and saucer built into one handy unit
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Sometimes, when you're politely drinking tea, the saucer sticks to the teacup, because a little tea has spilled. You don't realise, and, as you take a sip, the saucer falls off the cup, making a noise when it hits the table. This is embarrasing.

Why bother to have a seperate tea cup and saucer? It would be much better to have them integreated into one unit. This would stop the saucer falling off by accident.

One problem would be that, if you did spill some tea into the saucer, you would end up pouring it into your lap when you drank from the cup.

There are two simple solutions to this: 1) have a small hole in the saucer, so any spilt tea can safely drain onto the table. 2) make the saucer detachable. Perhaps it would be screwed on, or held on with strong magnets.

rocketmagnet, Nov 13 2002

Same Problem http://www.halfbake...non-stick_20coaster
[Nick@Nite, Oct 21 2004]

Same Problem http://www.halfbake...ea/Sticky_20Coaster
But the best solution of the lot, methinks. [Nick@Nite, Oct 21 2004]

Baked, I'm afraid https://www.google....k8wUasMuvnM#imgrc=_
(Except the drain hole or magnets...) [neutrinos_shadow, May 30 2016]

[link]






       Or you can hold the saucer in one hand, and the cup in the other. Thus, when you pick up the tea-cup, the other hand keeps the saucer down and stops it from sticking.
tyskland, Nov 13 2002
  

       I think it might be easier to develop surfaces for cup & saucer that don't stick together under the influence of tea.   

       This never happens to me anyway. How much sugar do you have in your tea?
sild, Nov 13 2002
  

       That first paragraph is soooo familiar - someone else had just this problem, but with beer mats.   

       [All these people with sticky beer mats/saucers - can we now expect a separate HB category?]
Nick@Nite, Nov 13 2002
  

       I saw a one piece tea cup and saucer combo on the antiques road show one time.   

       Why not have a little stirling-cycle engine driven by the hot tea, integrated into the bottom of the cup that drives a tiny force pump to pump dribbles of tea back up into the top ? You don't need much displacement on the pump, unless you're a major league biscuit dunker, in which case intake filters would be needed.
8th of 7, Nov 13 2002
  

       Hang on, back in a mo...
egbert, Nov 13 2002
  

       [+]OMG>>>> I just saw this idea on Shark Tank. I THINK his got an offer from Laurie Granier.   

       GREAT IDEA!! Time to brink it back from the grave.
r_kreher, May 29 2016
  

       I like this but not for the things stuck together. Who drinks out of cups anymore anyway? No, I want this as occupation: Saucer. Or possibly hero moniker. The Saucer.
bungston, May 29 2016
  

       Just use a weighted saucer on a hinge. Sorry, I forgot where I was for a moment. Just use a battery powered double gimballed saucer with a gyroscope.
Voice, May 29 2016
  

       Nuclear powered, shirley ?
8th of 7, May 29 2016
  

       The problem with this idea is that it's all wrong.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 29 2016
  

       Spills almost always happen within the first half inch or so of depletion; after that you have to be pretty shaky to manage it.   

       The solution is to make the teacup double-walled, open at the top, ie: a tall, thin cup glued inside a short, fat one. Spills and dribbles fall between the walls.   

       The outside cup should be spherical'ish (except the hole in the top which the inside cup pokes out of, of course) so any slopwater between the walls doesn't come pouring out during the last couple of sips.
FlyingToaster, May 30 2016
  

       Tastier solution: dunk the scones and shortbread (doesn't "tea" usually involve some sorts of finger food?) into the tea and eat them first. Then tip the saucer slops into the cup and guzzle the tea. Repeat as needed.
whatrock, May 30 2016
  

       /a tall, thin cup glued inside a short, fat one/ Sir - I have found that the tall inside the short definitely mitigates spills and dribbles. However on trying to consume the salvaged dribblage from the short, I find the tall makes contact with my forehead before I can achieve the requisite angle. I must then lean back at nearly a 90 degree angle to deplete the short cup.
bungston, May 30 2016
  

       Once you get the hang of the opposable thumb, it is actually possible to drink a cup of tea without spilling it.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 30 2016
  
      
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